Supersonic: Aces
by FirstImpulse
Summary: Nearly 30 years after the adventures at Area 88, a new enemy rises that threatens the entire free world. Only the four pilots of the first spec-ops fighter sqaudron stand in the way of armageddon.
1. Chapter 1

November 13, 2009 William Lewis

_Supersonic: Aces_

Chapter One-

"Tally Ho!"

The year is 2011. A light and dark brown dart tears across an open sea, causing the water underneath it to reach up into the sky and then rain back down. The dart is a semi-truck sized fighter jet, creating a rooster tail four stories high as it skims the surface of the water to avoid being seen by radar. It has two large engines slung underneath and two swept back vertical fins just above them. The wings are also swept back by about 30 degrees. The engines are spaced far apart, with four hatchback-sized missiles tightly arranged in pairs just between them. The nose of the craft extends 15 feet out in front of the intakes, a long bubble canopy starting halfway down the nose and terminating slightly behind the intakes. The plane bears the roundel of the Iranian Air Force, but its two pilots (sitting in tandem) wear G-suits bearing Israeli and United States insignia. The sun is in front of the craft, disappearing behind the mountains just over the horizon.

"I can't believe the Russians would sell two state-of–the-art AL-41F supercruise capable engines to Iran. When I heard about this mission I had thought the Intel people had got it wrong somehow." The back-seater of the craft contemplated out loud in an attempt to start a conversation with the rather stoic pilot who had Israeli insignia on both shoulders.

"Well, you know the economic situation in Russia now. They'll sell anything to anyone, at the right price." the pilot replied, not moving from his semi-relaxed position -staring through the HUD (Heads Up Display) projected on the airplane's windscreen.

"I guess I can't say anything since I'm American." The back-seater said, looking up through the canopy. "We were the people who sold these F-14As to Iran in the first place. All Russia did was provide some awesome engines to bring the Tomcat into the 21st century."

"America made the sale more than thirty years ago. That was back before Iran was aiding terrorists." The Israeli replied quicker than the American thought he would.

"Good point. I've always liked the Tomcat… It was one of the world's best back in the day, and now it is again."

"The airframe has always been good…" The Israeli said, looking over the controls, screens, and dials in front of him. "Now it has the maneuverability and technology to match the speed and brute force."

"Yeah." The American replied with a hint of pride in his voice.

His slight smile disappeared as two blips showed up on the circular radar screen between his legs. "We've got company. Two fighter sized aircraft rising from behind the mountains at twelve o'clock. They're forty miles out." The Israeli griped the stick.

"Any IFF?" (IFF stands for Identification Friend or Foe, an electronic tagging system used by military aircraft.)

"Iranian. We're too low for them to gain a lock on us with radar, but they're probably looking for us with IRST (infra-red heat detection) and laser range finder systems."

The American flipped a switch. "Offensive systems on. We're well within Phoenix missile range."

The pilot's brow furrowed. "What aircraft type?"

"Probably MiG-29s." The American replied. Suddenly warnings blared in the cockpit. "Missiles incoming! Two of em'!" he continued urgently.

_"It's begun…"_ the Israeli thought. "Wait until Sidewinder range before you shoot. The Phoenixes are crap at close range. I'm going to take them head on after dodging the missiles."

"Roger that." the American replied, grabbing the two handles attached to the ceiling of the canopy just behind the pilot's ejection seat. The Israeli glanced in one of the three oval shaped mirrors suspended from the canopy then looked straight ahead.

"Going Supersonic!" he slammed the throttle forward, dumping pure jet fuel into the red-hot exhausts of the engines, igniting the fuel and heaving the jet forward across the water. Several rings of flame appeared behind the engines now, the rings getting smaller as they grew further from the airplane. The wings swiveled back as the craft increased speed (increasing their sweep) and a thunderous double boom echoed as the plane went beyond the speed of sound. The pilot looked up and saw two bright lights arcing towards them.

_"Those are the missiles…"_ he thought, ripping the stick back. The Tomcat's horizontal stabilizers pitched up, putting the F-14 into a rapid and rather violent climb.

The Tomcat streaked upwards, pulling into the vertical. The incoming missiles now flew upwards in pursuit of the Tomcat's heat signature. The F-14's pilot continued to pull the stick back, pushing the craft past the vertical and into a loop. The missiles were now inside of the loop and arcing downwards. The Israeli looked up and behind as the missiles came within 300ft. "FLARES!" he shouted. _"Way ahead of you."_ The American thought, squeezing a button on one of the handles.

The Tomcat released five magnesium flares from between the engines, each an extremely bright light trailing grey smoke and burning at 3100 degrees. The missiles streaked outside the loop, attracted to the intense heat of burning magnesium.

The F-14 now pulled back into the horizontal about a fifth of a mile from the ground. "Let's fight back." the pilot said calmly. He switched to his heat-seeking Sidewinder missiles while the American locked the Tomcat's IRST on to one of the incoming signatures. "10 o'clock high and 2 o'clock high- they're going to split us."

The American advised.

"Ok…" the Israeli replied, peering into the shadow of the mountains. His brow furrowed as a glint of metal flashed to his far left.

"Tally Ho!" he yelled, cranking the stick back and to the left. The ailerons on the wings deflected in opposite directions, twisting the F-14 sideways while the horizontal stabilizers pitched upwards, putting the Tomcat into a carving left turn. The American was thrown to the right and then thrust into his seat as the Tomcat rotated like a Yo-Yo around a finger. The MiG in front of them was now clearly visible, the bright glow of the twin engines tell-tale as it began a hard left turn in an attempt to make the foreigners overshoot.

The MiG-29 "Fulcrum" is currently the world's most popular modern fighter, used by almost 30 nations, despite being technologically a step behind most craft. It has a configuration similar to the Tomcat, with twin engines slung underneath the fuselage, swept wings, twin tails, and a space between the engines. The main difference is that the Russian Fulcrum is shorter, smaller, and stubbier with normal fixed wings instead of the Tomcat's "Variable Sweep" wings, which swing further back as speed increases. Instead of carrying the main weapons between the engines it carries up to six missiles under the wings, the small space between the engines usually reserved for a teardrop-shaped external fuel tank. While being inferior to most other modern craft in long-range combat it can match or exceed nearly any fighter on earth in maneuverability and close range engagements with a good pilot.

Now the pilot of the MiG was making good use of his craft's maneuverability, about to make the Tomcat overshoot. _"How did he think he could make this turn?"_ the American thought, wondering at the Israeli's antics.

"_The Tomcat can just about turn with the Fulcrum with the wings swept to 20 degrees (the smallest sweep possible) but not at this speed with the wings fully swept to 68 degrees!"_

The MiG had almost made a 180 degree turn, while the Tomcat had just gone past 90 degrees. _"If that MiG gets behind us we're toast…" _The American thought as the Israeli flipped a switch next to the throttle. Suddenly the engine nozzles at the back of the Tomcat pitched up, pushing the rear of the airplane around the turn while pushing the nose inside the arc of the turn and towards the MiG. As if by magic the F-14's nose caught up to the MiG, pointing directly at the top of engines of the Fulcrum. _"What in-" _The American thought, wondering what on earth had just happened. _"It's the AL-41! These new engines have thrust vectoring capability!" _

"Thrust Vectoring" is an ability advanced engines employ which increases maneuverability by directing the thrust of the engine in the direction of the turn.

"_Gotcha."_ the Israeli thought, double tapping the trigger as the IRST gained a lock on the MiG. A Sidewinder missile shot out from beside each intake, their white contrails twisting toward the MiG. The Fulcrum released flares, drawing the second missile away- but the first struck exactly in the middle of the two engines. The rear of the Fulcrum became enveloped in a large fireball as the craft rolled over and started down towards the sea.

"_Got em'."_ the Israeli thought, watching the MiG fall. The Tomcat did a roll, keeping the canopy pointed at the stricken MiG as it disintegrated.

"Where's the other one?" he asked as the Tomcat rolled back upright.

"ON OUR SIX!" the American yelled just before a warning sounded in the cockpit, indicating that the second MiG was locking on to them. The pilot glanced in the mirror mounted to his left. Beyond the twin tails of the Tomcat a light blue fighter plane loomed.

"Not for long!" he said, jamming the stick to the right then pulling back on it. The Tomcat twisted almost upside down then dove away, the MiG falling away in pursuit.

The American was pushed back into the seat as the F-14 accelerated downwards.

"_I'd be surprised if that MiG could keep up with this dive,"_ he thought, looking in the mirror suspended between the handles he had in a death grip. The Fulcrum had activated its afterburners and was actually gaining ground on the Tomcat (the F-14 had bled off almost all of its speed in maneuvering with the first MiG).

The two craft shot downwards towards the sea. At this rate the planes would hit the water in less than seven seconds, and the MiG was still closing on the Tomcat- now within 100ft. The American had a good view between the Tomcat's tails via the mirror, and just as the MiG's pilot's face came into view what looked like bright orange basketballs shot out of the MiG's left wing root (where the very front of the wing meets the nose below the canopy).

"He's using GUNS!" the American shouted. Those orange basketballs from the left side of the Fulcrum were 30mm cannon shells, bullets as long as a kitchen knife. Several flew past the left of the F-14's canopy, hitting the water less than 500ft away.

"_Overzealous idiot."_ the Israeli thought, flipping another switch and then ripping the stick back.

A large flap opened between the Tomcat's twin tails, increasing the fighter's air resistance two fold. The Tomcat's wings spread in response to decreased speed as it pitched upwards in an image similar to a bird just before landing. The MiG blew past the Tomcat, impacting the water with an earth-shattering "_THOOM" _as the larger fighter rose gracefully back into the air after coming within ten feet of the water.

A plume of water the size of an office building became an impromptu grave marker for the Fulcrum's pilot.

"Nice save. Didn't think that a World War I era trick like air-braking could save our butts from that Fulcrum though." the American said, observing the water literally raining back into the sea.

"Tactics haven't changed much in the past hundred years, although the planes sure have." The Israeli replied, turning the Tomcat towards the mountains once again.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two-

Roll Out

A yellow orb of a sun completes its ascent over a desert- parched, flat, sandy, and arid. Waves of heat rise from the ground, obscuring vision on the level horizon. There is little wind, and the only sound to be heard is the distant roar of jet engines.

This is Tonopah Test Range, located 120 miles northeast of Las Vegas, Nevada and 90 miles north of Death Valley. For more than six decades it has provided the United States over 600 square miles of closed off airspace to evaluate and test new secret aircraft, and -since the 1980's- as a base to launch attacks using those craft. One of the programs here tested -and flew in combat- the first Stealth attack aircraft, while many other projects test Russian MiGs.

A single wide 2.3 mile runway stretches across the desert with many bright white hangers spread out between two mountains. A one-and-a-half mile long dry lake bed (itself hard enough to land an airliner on) sits next to the small city of four-story aircraft hangers and single-story offices.

A white medium-sized 737-600 airliner with a red stripe over the windows pitches up slightly as it touches down on the runway. The ordinary airliner looks out of place as it taxies past the row of military hangers beside the landing strip.

It comes to a stop next to one of the hangers, deploying a stairway from just behind and under the cockpit. Two men step out, both wearing street clothes and carrying suit cases. One is Japanese; the other speaks with a British accent.

"So this is the 'replacement' for Area 51…" the British man says, looking around as a brown Hummer drove out from behind a hanger and stopped in front of them.

"Akio Sho and Reilly Lancaster?" the uniformed driver asked, leaning out of the window.

"Yeah." the men in their mid-twenties replied at the same time. "Hop in, I'll take you to your new digs."

The ride was short and ended at a house-like administrative building behind the many hangers. The men grab their bags and walk inside, directed to a window-less office on the far side of the building. They strolled down the hallway, reached a door, double-checked the name card on it, then opened the door and stepped inside.

It was a well-kept but plain room, a metal desk in the center with a computer screen on one side of it, and two lightweight wooden chairs in front.

Sitting at the desk is a man seemingly in his early forties, but with a lean football-player like build. He sits casually with an interested expression as he reads a paper, which Akio quickly perceived as some sort of technical schematic for a modified Tomcat.

"Lieutenant Reilly Lancaster and Leading Airman Akio Sho reporting for duty sir."

The British man said, with only a bit of ceremony.

The man behind the desk looked up quickly and smiled slightly.

"Nice to meet cha, I'm Ryan Grimm." he said, even though the name card at the front of his desk clearly said Lieutenant Colonel Ryan Grimm.

"Have a seat guys."

The two young men sat down as the Colonel put his paper on the desk.

"So you two are the new recruits?" he asked, looking at one then the other.

"Yes, we just flew in from Vegas." Ryan replied. Apparently he was speaking for the two of them, but Akio seemed a bit uneasy about this. Grimm noticed this, and his next question was directed toward Akio.

"So, why did you two sign up for this?"

Akio perked up at this question.

"So I could use my skills. Something _this_ classified has to be doing more than training."

The Colonel chuckled.

"Well, we are. Got bored of puttering around Komatsu?" he said, referring to Akio's former base.

Akio blinked, and then remembered that the Colonel probably read through both of the new pilot's files. He shrugged, speaking in a slightly disinterested tone.

"I just think I could be more useful if I was shooting down MiGs instead of target drones."

The Colonel seemed to approve of this, nodding slowly as he looked towards Reilly. "How about you?"

Reilly shrugged slightly. "For the same reason really. And if it means we can take down some bad guys all the better."

The Colonel leaned back in his chair slowly, nodding.

"So, you two are probably wondering why Aces exists- and why it doesn't officially."

Akio nodded while Reilly answered for the two of them.

"Yeah, the only thing we have heard about it is the cover story."

The "cover story" was that the Aces had been founded as the Air Combat Experimental Squadron, a multi-national evaluation unit to test new weapons and upgrades for the Air Forces of Japan, America, Britain, and Israel.

The Colonel cleared his throat quietly, and when he spoke his tone had become much more sober.

"Ten years ago, the United States was attacked. More than 6000 injured. 3000 dead."

Akio and Reilly blinked slowly, leaning back in their seats.

On September 11, 2001, nineteen Al-Qaida agents hijacked four commercial airliners and flew them into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington D.C.

Both pilots had been in high school when the World Trade Center towers fell, and the telling news reels of screaming bystanders running from clouds of debris now returned to memory. The Colonel continued.

"Now, the U.S. and our allies finally on the verge of winning the war against our attackers, but our enemies have one more card to play. Intel suggests they're trying to attain nuclear weapons as a trump card, to turn the war decisively in their favor.

The Aces' job is to help end this war in our favor by countering these strategic threats around the globe, quickly and quietly."

Akio leaned back in his chair, taking it all in. Reilly smiled calmly.

"Excellent." he said, embracing the action-movie like role he had been selected for.

"What will we be flying?"

The Colonel directed them to a hanger next to the runway, and after the two pilots left their gear in the barracks they jumped back in the Humvee to make the short trek to the imposing four-story white box. The massive main door was closed, but through the use of their ID cards they were granted access to the normal sized door at the hanger's corner. The pilot's jaws dropped as they stepped through the doorway.

The hanger's interior was wide open, inclosing the area of two football fields, and among various diagnostic equipment and toolboxes were four gleaming new fighter jets.

They were arranged in a row at the far end of the hanger, their noses facing the pilots and the hanger's door.

Akio blinked. "I am _sooo _glad I signed up for this…"

The first airplane was Akio's personal favorite, a McDonnell Douglas F-15C Eagle. A large F-14 sized craft, the F-15 is currently the mainstay of Israel, Japan, and America's air forces, and for twenty years has been regarded as the best all-around fighter jet. F-15s have shot down over 100 enemy aircraft without one loss, despite being hit by missiles _and _airplanes. The extremely tough Eagle has a similar configuration to the Tomcat, minus the swing wings and widely spaced engines. The Eagle's engines are side-by-side and contained in a rectangular fuselage with the massive swept wing connected to the top of the box. The nose is about the same length as the Tomcat's, but the intakes which run alongside the nose make it seem a bit shorter. The F-15 is a brute-force machine armed with a 20mm cannon in the right wing root and up to twelve missiles underneath the wing roots and recessed into the edges of the fuselage. It can't turn as well as a baseline Tomcat, but the Eagle is slightly faster.

Reilly's eyes widened as he saw what was parked to the right of the Eagle.

What he saw was a MiG-29 sized airplane with a single tail, a wide rectangular intake under the nose, and a large wing shaped like a triangle with the tips cut off.

This was the Eurofighter EF2000 Typhoon, an airplane built and flown by Britain, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, and Saudi Arabia. The latest in European fighters, the Typhoon has twin engines mounted just above the wing, and small wings called canards mounted on the short nose below the canopy. Even though the EF2000 has the size of a Fulcrum it can carry as many missiles and bombs as the Eagle because of its large Delta wing, and is more maneuverable than the Fulcrum because of the canards and two narrow and tiny fins just behind the canards which make vortexes, giving the main wing more lift. The Typhoon also has a 27mm Mauser cannon in the right wing root for close-in fighting.

Next was a grey Tomcat, although as the new pilots approached it something seemed to set it apart from a normal Grumman F-14. The engine nozzles at the back were slightly longer and pointed down, and nose had two 20mm Gatling guns (one recessed into each side), instead of one. There was a technician standing on a metal ladder with handrails next to the cockpit of the airplane.

"Excuse us, but what's the story on this Tomcat?" Reilly asked.

The mechanic craned his neck around to see who was asking the question, then carefully walked down the ladder backwards. When he came back to earth he turned towards the pilots. The Latino in his early thirties had an adjustable wrench in one hand and a notepad in the other.

"It's been modified. This is a F-14E."

Reilly blinked. "Really? What's different about it?"

The tech smiled, apparently happy to talk about his handy work.

"We removed the rear seat and completely redid the front cockpit. That made room for a second M61 (the United States' standard 20mm air-to-air cannon) and a huge avionics upgrade. There's also a new AESA radar- the avionics pack on this is better than the one on the Eurofighter."

Reilly almost couldn't believe the last part.

"So you guys basically built a 4.5 generation fighter out of a Tomcat?" he asked.

"Yeah. Especially with the new AL-41 engines."

Reilly didn't even react this time. "Isn't that engine Russian?"

"Yeah," the technician said, drawing close to Reilly. "Don't tell, but we "borrowed" this plane from the Iranians. The new engines came with it."

Reilly was having a hard time taking the guy seriously, but remembered that the only nation the F-14 was exported to was Iran, and the remaining American craft were shredded in 2007 to avoid parts falling into Iranian hands (the F-14 was replaced by the F/A-18 in 2006).

The Tomcat was a so-called "4th generation" jet fighter, designed just after the Vietnam War in the early 70's and introduced into service in the late 70's. The avionics (airborne computing) capability was that of a laptop, maybe less. The Eagle was the same way.

The new "4.5 generation" fighters had upgraded engines and computers, and new AESA (Airborne Electronically Scanned Array) radars capable of identifying tanks and airplanes from over a hundred miles away.

"Is it ready Ethan?" a stoical Middle-Eastern voice said from behind the pilots.

"It's done. You can take her' up now if you want." Ethan, the technician, replied.

The pilots turned to find a clean-shaven Israeli pilot in his mid twenties walking up to the ladder. Walking beside him was an African-American who was about the same age, both of them wearing olive-drab G-suits designed to keep pilots from passing out during extreme maneuvers. As the Israeli mounted the ladder his companion stopped to talk with Ethan.

"Did you straighten out the cockpit settings?" he asked coolly.

Ethan nodded. "Yeah, all your stuff is uploaded, tested, and ready to go."

The American smiled. "Thanks, man." he looked over at the two new pilots in street clothes. "Are you two the noobs?" he asked in a blunt but friendly manner.

Akio made a face. "Uh- yeah..."

"Welcome to Tonopah. My name's Max Blue, callsign Torque. My friend here is Ethan Torres- avionics, weapons, airframe, engines, this is the guy and his team can fix it- even when he's getting shot at." Max motioned to Ethan, then looked up at the Tomcat's open cockpit.

"The quiet guy in the Tomcat is David Yosef- callsign Slingshot. He might seem passive, but he's got more air-to-air kills than any American, British, or Japanese pilot has had in three decades."

"Nice to meet you- I'm Lieutenant Reilly "Rapier" Lancaster and this Leading Airman Akio "Bushido" Sho." Reilly replied courteously.

Akio looked up at David. "How many kills does he have exactly?"

Max looked up as well, crossing his arms.

David glanced down at Max, then at Akio. "15." He said, looking back up at the Tomcat's HUD.

Reilly's jaw dropped. Not since the epic hundred-plane dogfights of World War II had such a huge number of kills been claimed by a fighter pilot. Most pilots would be more than happy to have one.

The kill-less Akio and Reilly were quiet for a moment.

Max broke the silence. "Israel has been fighting off invaders and terrorists since the 50's, so their pilots are the most experienced in the world. If I remember right David scored his first kill in 2007 right?" he looked back up at David, who nodded.

"On an escort mission. Most of them came from that."

"And undoubtedly some from missions he isn't willing to talk about." Max said, giving Akio and Reilly a look.

Immediately after that comment the Tomcat's engines started, producing the distinctive hollow scream of a fighter spooling up. Max started walking towards the last parking space of the hanger, and the two new pilots followed. All they could see of the fourth airplane in the hanger were two horizontal tails rising from behind a wall of diagnostic equipment.

Akio's brow furrowed. The trapezoidal tails had a noticeable cant outwards, almost 45 degrees. They rounded the corner, revealing an angular but streamlined fighter jet. The craft's nose was smoothed-over and angular, with the gold-tinted bubble canopy on top ending seven feet from the tip of the nose. The parallelogram-shaped intakes were nestled up against the sides of the nose, and while angular they were much smoother than the Tomcat or Eagle's intakes. The fuselage had a trapezoid-like cross section, the wider upper part melding into the diamond-shaped wing. The tail was just as radical, the twin canted trapezoids rising above horizontal stabilizers with the corners cut off.

Akio and Reilly were speechless. This was the United States' latest fighter, built to replace the Eagle. The first and –as of 2011- only 5th generation fighter jet in service- the F-22 Raptor. It combines extreme speed and maneuverability with thrust vectoring engines and the most modern and capable AESA radar and avionics ever fielded on a fighter, as well as a full stealth capability which lets it disappear from radar and IRST.

Because of these features the Raptor is considered nearly invincible compared to 4th or 4.5 gen airplanes, yet the high cost of the craft (almost five times that of an F-15) ensures that the F-22 is a rare sight even in its home nation.

"So, whadaya' think of my new ride?" Max shouted over the noise of the F-14E.

The Tomcat started rolling towards the opening hanger door.

"Sweet!" Akio said loudly into his ear. The F-14E finally left the hanger and the noise died down enough to speak normally.

"After me and Slingshot picked up that Tomcat Colonel Grimm convinced the high-ups that I needed something better than an Eagle." he looked up at the fighter.

"This thing is awesome."

Over the next two months the four pilots trained hard and incessantly, pushing the fighting machines to the limit blasting through and over the mountain passes of Tonopah. But as the three month anniversary of their arrival came around the unit received its first mission as a four-plane team.

An Al-Qaida safe house had been discovered in the hills of Belarus, and was to be raided by a CIA SAD (Special Activities Division) team brought to the scene by two V-22 Osprey tilt-rotors. The raid's plan would have been perfect, except that the Belarusian government wasn't cooperating, and might send out fighters if the Osprey transports were detected. To counter this the Aces were called upon to protect and escort the Ospreys to and from the safe house.

The earlier mission the Aces performed was one way, stealing an F-14 from Tabriz Airbase in northwestern Iran, flying across Lake Urmia to the mountainous border of Turkey, and landing at Incirlik Air Base to disassemble the F-14 so it could be transported to Tonopah. For this mission the Aces would take off from Germany, re-fuel in midair over the Baltic Sea, and then fly over Lithuania to begin their patrol in Belarus. This was going to be almost 1800 miles roundtrip, possibly fighting against some of the most agile and well-armed fighters on earth. If the pilots came back at all, they would have a fight to the finish.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three-

Grandslam

The distant low whir of rotorcraft was the only warning the enemy got that the United States' premier Special Operations team was inbound on their safe house. Only by the light of a clear full moon and their Night-Vision Goggles the CIA's Special Activities Division paratroops came down from the sky into the low and green hills of Belarus, killed all who opposed them, took all the records and information they could find, and retreated back into the air.

One of the two CV-22 (the special-ops variant of the Osprey) tilt-rotors was still on the ground retrieving its commandos while the other hovered overhead, providing a little security. The Osprey is the world's first operational vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) tilt-rotor aircraft. It is the size of a large helicopter, with a smooth and utilitarian fuselage much like a normal chopper, except for a large bulge on each lower middle side and a large loading ramp at the back replacing the side doors on a normal helicopter. Instead of a tail rotor, there are two vertical tails adjoining the wide horizontal stabilizer at the back above the loading ramp. At the middle of the fuselage roof there is a wide bulge from which the long and straight wings sprout. At the tip of each wing is an engine nacelle with an oval-shaped intake slung under and behind a nosecone and large rotor with three blades, and at the back of the nacelle is a square exhaust.

The CV-22 still on the ground had its rotors pointed straight up, as the blades would hit the ground if the nacelles were pointed forwards. The Osprey finally had its troops back on board, and lifted off the ground. Rotors churning and ramp still down (the only weapon the V-22 has is a single M240 machine gun mounted on a tripod on the ramp) the Ospreys turned and started to head west over the vast uninhabited forest.

Increasing speed, one formed up 200ft behind the other and their nacelles rotated into the horizontal, facing forward. Flying low enough to clip treetops they accelerated to 277 MPH, faster than any helicopter could go and the cruise speed for the rest of the trip.

In the cockpit of the lead craft the copilot stretched back in his seat.

"_Guess we didn't need an escort after all..."_ he thought, still focused on the terrain ahead. Just then a slow beeping noise entered the cockpit, meaning they were being tracked by radar. Both pilots blinked, then shared a look. Their own radar was only being used for terrain-following purposes at the moment, and hadn't seen whoever was tracking them approach. Even though the Ospreys would have remained undetected under normal circumstances, two Belarusian Air Force MiG-29S Fulcrums that happened to be on a training mission managed to pick up the tilt-rotors on their search radar. They had called in friends, and after attempting to contact the low-flying aircraft using foreign IFF through the radio they retreated back to long range for a better shot.

Alarms went off in the cockpits of the V-22s as they were locked on to and radar-guided missiles launched. The Ospreys were flying too low and slow to dodge the missiles effectively, so all the pilots could do was hope that the onboard jammers would mess up the missile's guidance systems. The missiles' were visible for several miles out because of their bright white exhausts, and all four launched at the V-22s were tracking dangerously well, homing in on their targets. The missiles were now within seconds of the Ospreys, who had nowhere to run.

"WHERE'S OUR ESCORT?" The pilot shouted over the alarms. Suddenly four missiles from the _opposite direction_ streaked over the tilt-rotors, meeting the four opposing missiles only 300ft from the Ospreys with a muffled _BOOM. _All four enemy shots had been intercepted by four other missiles head-on.

A thundering shriek then sounded as four fighter jets blew past the Ospreys in the opposite direction, headed for the MiGs.

"Aces on station." Max Blue (callsign Torque) said coolly over the radio.

"I didn't even know you guys could do that," the lead V-22s pilot replied, almost in shock.

"We weren't that sure either," Torque said, smiling nervously.

"We'll watch your back till' you cross the border." he continued.

"Roger. We'll continue egress."

Torque now glanced at his radar, which was sending its picture to the other three Aces aircraft in the formation. His brow furrowed.

"I've got more Fulcrums takin' off from airbases in the area, count nine- ten- no, twelve. You guys have the same?"

Reilly (callsign Rapier) was first to reply.

"Yeah, and four Flankers are also inbound twelve o'clock low at 80 miles."

"Oi- we're being backed into a corner_..." _Bushido said, looking at the waves of enemy craft. This was going to turn out very badly if they let all those maneuverable little Fulcrums get too close.

"We're not going to let that happen. Aces flight, switch to BVR missiles- we'll take em' down before they get close."

All of the pilots switched to their BVR (Beyond Visual Range) missiles, AMRAAMs for Bushido, Torque, and Rapier, and the AIM-54 Phoenix for Slingshot's Tomcat. The AIM-120D AMRAAM missiles had a range of 60 miles, and the Phoenix's were good for 115 miles or more. Torque locked up several of the approaching MiG-29s with his radar, sending the location, speed, and heading information to his wingmen.

"Fox Three!" all four pilots shouted, a missile dropping from each craft and taking off towards the MiGs.

"How's it look?" Slingshot asked calmly. Torque glanced at his radar screen.

"AMRAAMs tracking well. They can't see em'."

The airplanes they were facing were slightly more modern versions of the Fulcrum designated MiG-29S. The "S" has a new avionics and flight control system, giving slightly better maneuverability, the capability to launch long-range missiles, and a Radar Warning Receiver to warn of incoming missiles.

But the Aces had thought of this. Torque's Raptor had what is called passive stealth, a technique which uses special airframe shaping and advanced radar-absorbent coatings to trump long-range sensors. But the Raptor has another trick up its sleeve. It also has active stealth, a technique that uses the F-22s evolved AESA radar to manipulate the electromagnetic waves sent out by the MiG's radar to make the entire Aces team –and their missiles- disappear from the Fulcrum's sensors.

From the enemy pilot's point of view AIM-120 missiles were dropping out of the clear black sky and incinerating their friends.

"Splash one!" Bushido shouted as his missile impacted a MiG and it disappeared from his radar screen. "Splash" two, three, and four were announced in due course by Torque, Slingshot, and Rapier as more missiles found their targets.

Torque checked his radar screen and grimaced. The other eight MiG-29s kept coming, even after losing a third of their number. More would have to die to safeguard the V-22s.

"Looks like they want it guys," Torque began.

"Let's lock em' up and knock em' down." he finished.

Things got serious after that.

The Aces' radar picture was combined into one and each aircraft selected two targets and then their pilots double tapped the trigger. Missile after missile dropped off the craft and rocketed forward in rapid-fire fashion, headed for the still blinded MiGs.

Only seconds later the Mach 4 capable AMRAAM and _Hyper_sonic (Mach 5+) Phoenix missiles were among the enemy, wreaking havoc as airplanes were knocked from the sky one by one. The carnage was not complete, however, as three of the maneuverable MiG-29s noticed the missiles just before impact and managed to dodge them by jinking one way or the other, and the four Su-27 Flankers had not been targeted yet.

But even with this the seven remaining enemy aircraft were now almost within visual range at twenty miles out. Slingshot looked out into the darkness.

"This is bad."

Torque grimaced again.

"Aces, use up your Slammers on these guys. Spike the Flankers too!"

"Slammer" is the U.S. Air Force nickname for the AIM-120 AMRAAM, the ubiquitous medium-range air-to-air missile developed by America and used by more than 35 countries. A final volley of ten missiles rippled off the four fighter jets as the Russian-made fighters closed.

Seven seconds later each of the three MiGs had become multiple large orange fireballs after dodging one or two of the incoming missiles. But the Flankers were what attracted the attention of the Aces. Each of the massive (slightly larger than the F-15) fighters weaved through incoming missile contrails, each AMRAAM detonating just behind the Flankers as the combined speed of the Flankers and AMRAAMs was too fast for the AIM-120's proximity fuses to arm.

In this fashion each missile shot was made futile in an extremely artful way, the Su-27 Flankers sliding far to one side then the other with loud and bright detonations following them.

"That doesn't look like any Belarusian piloting!" Rapier said, eyes wide as the Flankers dodged the last missiles.

Bushido swallowed. This would settled up-close, the old fashion way. He remembered seeing a Chinese Flanker perform at an air show, and how all Eagle pilots had a certain respect and fear of the F-15's Russian counterpart.

The Sukhoi Su-27 "Flanker" is a menacing looking fighter designed by Russia to counter the F-15, and is the largest 4th generation fighter. It has a Tomcat-like plan form with a drooping nose and muscular forepart blending into a sharply swept wing, followed by twin vertical tails and angular horizontal stabilizers. The engines are arranged an engine-width apart from each other and are earlier versions of the AL-41F engines (without Thrust-Vectoring) onboard the F-14E used by the Aces. It is capable of carrying up to 14 air-to-air missiles and has a 30mm cannon below and to the right of the cockpit. Despite being the poster child for a "High-capability" heavy fighter it can turn _better_ than the MiG-29 and has proven to be able to turn with the Eurofighter and even perform maneuvers previously thought impossible.

The four Flankers and four Aces craft passed each other in the air with a combined velocity more than twice the speed of sound. Each pilot then yanked his craft into a hard turn, attempting to get on his enemy's tail. Torque utilized his thrust-vectoring to almost pivot on his Raptor's axis, spinning 180 degrees in the space of a city block at 600 MPH. A constrained grunt resulted from the excessive g-force of the maneuver in which he lost nearly all his speed , having to punch his throttles forward to keep enough air passing over the wings (slow down too much in an airplane and the wings stop producing lift, causing the plane to drop from the sky in a "Stall"). But the extreme turn also put one of the turning Flankers directly in front of the Raptor, a perfect shooting position. Torque smiled slightly. _"Eat Sidewinder."_

"Fox-2, Fox-2!" he said quickly, his Raptor's two AIM-9X missiles shooting off towards the enemy at almost the same time. The Flanker, already half way through his U-turn, instantly launched a wall of fifteen flares from the between his exhausts.

The Sidewinders, however, _ignored _the flare wall, quickly reaching past it and touching the Flanker with deadly expanding-rod warheads. Torque blinked as the Sukhoi detonated twice, the entire rear half sliced off as the right wing became molten metal rain. _"I guess these new missiles _do _work…" _he thought as the Flanker (which now bore a strong resemblance to a swatted fly) fell from the sky.

The new AIM-9X made for the Raptor is part of a new generation of short-range missiles which see heat so clearly that they aren't attracted to ambient engine heat, but the inferred signature of a fighter jet, actually _seeing_ the wings, tail, and cockpit, and then choosing the best point of impact. Torque was rather glad that point of impact wasn't the cockpit this time, as it was generally nice to shoot down a bad guy without killing him.

His parachute was visible now, and Torque was grateful he wasn't in that pilot's position as he looked for his next victim.

Meanwhile things weren't as easy for Bushido in his Eagle. His enemy had out-turned him and was now on his tail, making him dance for the 30mm rounds being thrown at him. The Eagle jinked left and right, rolling, diving, and now flying straight as the Flanker behind him ran out of cannon rounds. Bushido thanked the Lord that the Flanker only carried 275 rounds (giving 11 seconds of firing at most) then wondered for a split-second where he got "thank the Lord" from, since he, like most Japanese, was Buddhist. He threw the thought out of his mind as a quarter-second after the cannon stopped firing the Flanker attempted to lock on to him using IRST. He grimaced, wondering what he could do to evade the tight-turning Flanker. Then he remembered where "thank the Lord" came from. He had gotten it from Torque while in training, who had also taught him a move he had only seen in Top Gun previously.

Bushido popped his air-brake, a large flap lifting from behind the cockpit. The Flanker slid past, abruptly cranking to the left in a tight turn, attempting to regain the advantage.

_"There's no way I can turn with him…"_ Bushido thought desperately, watching the Sukhoi revolve. Then he remembered the Eagle's only advantage against the Flanker in a maneuvering dogfight. Power. Bushido slammed the throttles forward and pulled the stick back and to the left, rising rapidly while turning to the left. The Flanker completed its turn as the Eagle came back down comfortably behind it, the Flanker filling the gun sight projected on the F-15's HUD. This maneuver is called the High Yo-Yo, a move developed during the Vietnam War where U.S. pilots pitted their large and muscular F-4 Phantoms against the smaller and much more agile MiG-17. It is a tactic used to counter a more maneuverable opponent, using the climb to reduce forward momentum, giving a short agility boost. Bushido exhaled in relief, rending the Su-27 with 20mm cannon rounds. The Eagle carries 940, but with the M61's insane 100-rounds-per-second rate-of-fire, it still only has 9.4 seconds of shooting time. Four seconds proved more than enough however, after which the Flanker (which already looked like tissue paper hit by bird shot) detonated in a massive fireball. Bushido blinked as the cracking thunder of the explosion reached his ears just before he blew through the fireball. His craft emerged out of the other side like a bullet through a watermelon, with dinner-plate sized pieces of what was once a small-house-sized Sukhoi raining down around him._ "Whoa…"_

Now Rapier was putting his gun sight on the Flanker in front of him, or trying to at least. Getting on the Sukhoi's tail wasn't a problem, but lining up for a guns kill (he was "Winchester", or out of missiles) was proving near impossible at half the speed of sound. This Flanker's pilot was also quite crafty, having almost turned the tables more than once on the slightly more maneuverable EF2000. After a series of loops, turns, and even an air braking attempt (Rapier was too far back for this to be effective, popping his own brakes to counteract the move) the enemy fighter was put in a tail slide (when a pilot uses the airplane's rudders to put the fighter in a shallow drift). This slowed the plane down enough that an overzealous attacker would overshoot, but Rapier did the same with his Eurofighter, pressing the rudder petal and pushing the stick slightly forward to increase the angle of the slide.

_"Even if you're creative I have the better plane..."_ he thought.

Just then the Su-27 pitched up violently, the air moving over the wings condensing into cloud as the nose pointed straight up. The pitch-up was so fast that the plane was still moving forward (not up), turning _the entire airplane_ into a massive airbrake. Rapier's eyes grew wide as the Flanker seemed to stop in mid-air, the EF2000 forced to shoot past. This intense maneuver is called a "Pugachev's Cobra" after its Russian test pilot creator. Only possible with an extremely maneuverable craft (usually with thrust vectoring, although this isn't required) the Cobra is an extreme and rather desperate move to get the advantage in a dogfight by forcing the other craft to fly past, even though the pitch-up maneuver makes the Cobra's user a massive target for a split second.

Now Rapier was far past that point as the Flanker returned to normal flight, locking the Eurofighter up. _"Oh that's just BRILLIANT…" _Rapier thought, slamming the Typhoon to the right and releasing a flare wall. But just before the Flanker's pilot pulled the trigger an almost solid stream of 20mm rounds came from above, slicing through the forepart just behind the cockpit of the Flanker and rending it from the fuselage. This ripped the cockpit off the airplane, sending it into the left vertical tail- canopy first.

Rapier looked back to see Torque's Raptor pull up alongside the Typhoon. "Thanks! I would have been toast had that chap launched his Archers!" he said gratefully.

"Any time, man. These Flankers are slippery."

There was only one Flanker left now, and it was on Slingshot's tail.

At the start of the dogfight Slingshot had actually made a move similar to Torque's, using his thrust-vectoring to swing around towards his opponent. But Slingshot's two AIM-9X missiles flew wide as the Flanker turned back toward the Tomcat, leaving him with only his two M61 cannons and a lot of confidence. The two craft weaved back and forth, the Tomcat on the Flanker's tail. Then the Flanker hit his airbrakes, sending the Tomcat careening forward.

_"I can't believe I fell for that,"_ Slingshot thought. An alarm sounded as the Flanker locked him up and released four missiles almost simultaneously.

_"Are you kidding?"_ Slingshot thought, nearly panicking before his training kicked in. His expression became determined as he slammed the F-14 to the right using thrust vectoring, then punched the throttle forward, the Tomcat arcing to the right with a shriek as all four missiles fired at him flew slightly wide one after the other. In the quarter second required to roll the plane back into the horizontal Slingshot had an idea. "_If the thrust vectoring can pitch the plane into a turn when it's sideways, what happens when you hit it when flying straight?"_ he raised an eyebrow, then yanked the stick back, pitching the nose up in a spontaneous Cobra maneuver.

The stunned Flanker pilot shot past just as the Tomcat came back into horizontal flight, passing through Slingshot's gun sight just as he pulled the trigger. Both 20mm Gatling guns aboard the F-14E sent tracers into and past the Flanker, which came out of the ammo streams smoking, canopy shattered, and a straight line from the cockpit to the left vertical tail looking like Swiss cheese. This last enemy fighter keeled over to the right in a death dive, smacking into the ground fifteen seconds later with a sickening _crunch_ complete with medium-sized fireball.

The four Aces formed up, just as a codeword came over the radio that the V-22s and their "customers" where safely back on the San-Antonio class military transport/helicopter carrier cruising in the Baltic Sea.

Torque got on the radio to confirm.

"This is Aces1-1. We have a Grandslam, repeat, Grandslam, all enemy aircraft destroyed. Aces flight is Winchester and RTB (returning to base)."

The next day the Aces touched down at Tonopah, only to be immediately called into Colonel Grimm's office. The Colonel looked up as the four pilots entered, still wearing G-suits.

"Nice work guys. I think the Belarusians will have a hard time figuring out who knocked down sixteen of their planes. I'll get right to business, though. The documents taken from that safe house turned out to be much more valuable than we thought. And _much_ more urgent. They show a large nuclear weapons sale has just taken place between one of Al-Qaida's subsidiaries and North Korea. CIA has managed to track the warheads to an airbase next to their capital, Pyongyang. The nukes are scheduled to leave that country in four days. Worse part is we have _nothing _in that area which can beat the North Korean IADS (Integrated Air Defense System)." He spoke quickly but seriously, catching the pilot's attention.

"What about the B-2s, sir? They're extremely stealthy, and carry plenty of boom." Torque offered.

The Colonel shook his head. "_They're _stealth, but their bombs aren't. The North Koreans have SA-17 Gadfly SAMs (Surface to Air Missiles) which can easily take out bombs dropped from high altitude."

Now it seemed that America and its allies had been caught with their pants down, but Colonel Grimm had one more thing to say.

"The only low-altitude capability stealth squadron that can be deployed that rapidly are you guys. So repack your bags. You dually impressed the higher-ups of your respective nations with that Belarus job, so the Japanese going to let you launch from Miho Air Base in southern Japan, and you'll get full support from the carrier USS George Washington in the Yellow Sea to take care of business. You'll get your final mission brief at the base. You leave as soon as your planes are refueled."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four-

Mission Abort

With the ocean far below and the moon far above, two contrails race just above the clouds only minutes before midnight, the large but beautiful cumulus bundles seeming to flow underneath as the white vapor trails streak overhead. At the head of the tightly spaced trails are two F/A-18E Super Hornet fighters, with several missiles hanging from each wing. The Super Hornets look like a cross between an F-22 and an F-15, with the layout and 4th generation look of an Eagle and the parallelogram intakes and canted tails of the Raptor. One of the Hornet's distinguishing features are shelf-like LERXs (Leading Edge Extensions) which run from a quarter of the way down the wing from the fuselage and taper off under the canopy. Slightly smaller than an F-15, the Super Hornet is the United States Navy's primary combat aircraft, having replaced no less than seven fighter and support planes on its arrival (including the F-14D Tomcat). These two had launched from the USS George Washington only minutes before, and where now angling towards the coast for an electronic sweep of the North Korean IADS in preparation for the Aces' strike (basically poking the lion to see what it would do, except with AESA radars instead of a stick).

"Gull 1-1, Music on." the lead airplane's pilot says, flipping a switch.

The gray lettering under the front of the lead plane's canopy reads

_**LT CM John "Vapor" Seater**_, while the second plane's name tag says

_**CAPT Renée "Renegade" Warren.**_

"Copy lead, Gull 1-2 confirms."

The AESA radars on the 4.5 gen Super Hornets now went into jamming/electronic mapping mode.

The Hornets weren't quite built for this type of mission, but were the only craft on the Washington that could handle going up against the North Korean MiG-29S fighters. The Hornets were a little more maneuverable than an Eagle, especially at low speed, but much slower than either the F-15 or F-14.

The advantages of the Hornet were its large (fourteen-shot) missile load, good maneuverability at low speed, good AESA radar, and it being semi-stealthy. This does not make it disappear from radar, and does not help for IRST sensors, but does make it a lot easier to evade radar guided missiles and SAM radars.

After two minutes of poking-the-lion intelligence gathering (which would prove extremely useful for the upcoming strike) two MiG-29s appeared on the two Super Hornet's square radar screens. They rose from the coastal airfield which the CIA had now confirmed to house the Al-Qaida operated Boeing 727 airliner to be used for transporting the nuclear warheads out-of-country.

The two US fighters had evaded the SAM radars on the coast (cataloging them as they flew past), but they would have to deal with these fighters, as they were already inside the MiG's R-77 (the Russian counterpart to the AIM-120) missile range.

The Hornet's leader radioed to the Airborne Warning And Control (or AWACs) plane on patrol, which acts as a dispatcher to fighters.

"This is Gull 1, I've got a group of two Fulcrums north east of Bullseye for 40 miles, angels ten thousand."

"Copy, I'm showing that contact as well. Looks like trouble. You are weapons free."

The AWACs replied.

"Roger. Gull flight, push it up and go Supersonic." The two Super Hornets engaged afterburners and blew through the sound barrier while the MiGs fifty miles away did the same.

Thanks to their AESA radars and semi-stealthy features the F/A-18s didn't even show up on the MiG's radar until just after two AMRAAM missiles were dropped from each of the Boeing Super Hornets. One MiG managed to jink the first missile thrown its way, but the second transformed this last Fulcrum into a large fireball as the pilot ejected.

_"Killing Fulcrums is too easy..."_ Renegade thought, shaking her head as the radar contact of the MiG burst into many pieces and then disappeared from the radar screen. She then switched back to jamming/electronic mapping mode, and found a large electromagnetic disturbance approaching them. _"What on earth..."_

"This is Gull 1-2, I've got a strobe closing fast on us from the coast. Do we have any other EW planes out now?" She asked the AWACs as the cloud of disturbance closed on them.

"Negative, Gull 1-2. You're the only planes out there." The voice from the AWACs replied. Renegade's eyes narrowed. If the US didn't have any other Electronic Warfare aircraft out here then what was causing the disturbance which was moving at Supersonic speed towards them? Did the North Koreans have a new plane?

But Gull flight's leader already knew what was coming.

"Gull fight, warning red, repeat warning red. This is Gull 1-1, we have a threat on our nose less than 30 miles. No joy on threat, repeat, no joy on threat. Threat has music, repeat, threat has music." Vapor said quickly.

The AWACs controller's voice was now immediately serious upon learning that unidentified and almost definitely hostile planes were using high-power jamming to conceal themselves from Gull flight, which was almost within the reach of short-range missiles.

"Gull flight abort mission, repeat, Gull flight abort mission and return to base." He said tensely. The electronic information collected by the Hornets had already been sent to the carrier, so their mission was nearly complete. Just then the front edge of the disturbance passed the Hornets, making their radars useless, and then the IRST missile warning sensors on both Navy craft went crazy, just as two R-73 Archer short-range missiles shot through the clouds ahead of the Hornets. "BREAK!" Vapor shouted, just before one of the missiles flew into the right intake of his plane, ripping the right-hand LERX from the nose and the right wing from the fuselage. Renegade jinked left _just_ in time and the missile locked on her flew by not three feet from the Hornet, it's proximity fuse going off a tenth of a second too late to damage the F/A-18E as it was put into a rapid climb.

The nose of Vapor's stricken Super Hornet ripped off as the craft began a violent roll to the right as the wing fell away, and he yanked the ejection handle between his legs. The cockpit did half a back-flip as the canopy was blown off and the rockets under the seat fired, blasting him right into one of his destroyed Hornet's tails as the craft rolled.

Renegade quickly inverted her airplane to look down into the clouds as she rocketed upward away from the threat, telling herself to get a handle on the situation.

"Gull 1-2, Gull 1-1 is down! Request SAR (Search And Rescue) helo! We were just jumped!" She said tersely as two large fighter jets blew through the cloud cover.

She yanked the stick back, carving back down in behind her attackers.

"Tally two Flanker-Es!" She locked one up and launched a Sidewinder, but the craft jinked right and released a wall of flares. Even though the missile ignored the flares the Flanker's tight turn forced it to miss. The AIM-9X's proximity fuse, however, detonated right on time, and despite being a few feet away the missile knocked off a tail plane and shredded the right vertical tail and engine. But the modified Flanker seemed to keep flying, reversing his turn and going into a left spiral which may or may not have been accidental.

She rolled upside down and dove after it, switching to the 20mm cannon mounted in the Super Hornet's upper nose. 190 rounds left the gun in less than two seconds with the sound of a buzz-saw, and with excellent marksmanship entered the spiraling Flanker a second later as it and the F/A-18E behind it flew into the clouds. When the two planes burst out of the cloud the right tail of the Flanker-E had disintegrated, and the airplane started trailing smoke and fire as its decent became a final one.

"Splash one!" She shouted, thinking _"That one's for Vapor."_

Then the IRST warning sensor sounded an alarm, reminding Renée of the second Sukhoi. Two R-73 missiles streaked downwards, and Renegade once again yanked the stick to violently pull up. The F/A-18's LERXs generated all the lift she needed, and the missiles shot underneath by several feet. She expected the Flanker to overshoot as the missiles did, but the massive fighter pitched up just as she did, losing more than half its speed in a move resembling the beginning of a Cobra. Renegade's eyes widened, looking back. _"Whoa- THAT's pulling g's..."_

Then the Flanker's pilot gave his 30mm cannon a try, giving Ren a chance to show the Super Hornet's low-speed maneuverability. She jinked left and held the turn, surprising the enemy pilot by starting to out-turn the Flanker.

_"Now I just need to stay at low speed to get behind him..." _Ren thought. But then the upgraded Flanker-E activated its thrust-vectoring, the nose pitching inside the turn with the cannon still blasting away. _"Sh-" _Renegade began to think, watching the stream of rounds swing around and intersect with her fighter. Five 30mm rounds crashed through the fuselage, knocking out both engines and the avionics.

"EJECT, EJECT, EJECT!" Renegade shouted, yanking the handle just before the Hornet caught fire. The canopy blew off and flipped backwards and the rocket seat was ejected from the plane, Renegade's parachute opening three seconds after being blown out of the aircraft, which was now headed towards the water.

"_Nani?"_ Bushido said into his cell phone half an hour later, meaning a very direct "What?" in Japanese. He shook his head slowly, eyes closed. After exhaling he said something else into the phone in Japanese, then pushed END.

"What was that?" Max asked. Akio turned to the three other pilots, who had been watching an anime in the officers' lounge of Miho Air Base.

"Two of your Navy's Super Hornets were just downed by North Korean airplanes using Active Stealth." Akio replied. Max grimaced.

"Deaths?" he asked.

"One." Akio said sorrowfully, putting the phone back in his pocket.

Reilly got up.

"Seems the opposition has a few new tricks up his sleeve." He said, hands in his pockets. Max's eyes narrowed.

"But Active Stealth on an old Fulcrum?" he asked, almost in disbelief.

"No, actually they say the Hornets were attacked by two Flanker-Es. Your Hornets managed to down one of them," Bushido said, attempting to smooth over the atmosphere in the room.

"Su-35s..." Max almost whispered to himself.

"Those things are top-of-the-line! How did a nation like the North get those?" he continued.

"The piloting isn't bad either, from what I heard." Akio said.

For the first time in five minutes Slingshot spoke up.

"Al-Qaida has operated an air transport wing for a while now to get drugs across the South Atlantic to fund their operations. It probably wouldn't take much more effort to start a fighter wing."

"So you're saying that the bad guys own and operate their own fighters?" Max asked.

"I say it is a good possibility." David finished.

Akio and Reilly shared a look while Torque cocked his head to one side in thought. "I'll have it checked out. If these people _do _have their own Su-35s the mission to shut down these nukes just got a lot harder."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five-

Cleared Hot

Less than five hours later the Aces were once again among the clouds. Having launched from Miho Air Base in eastern Japan under the cover of darkness the four craft headed southeast to meet up with an American-built but Japanese-flown KC-767 aerial refueling aircraft over the yellow sea, escorted by Japanese F-15J Eagles because the rendezvous took place less than 100 miles off the North Korean coast.

The South Koreans were also taking part in the CAP (Combat Air Patrol) with their upgraded two-seater F-15K Slam Eagles, as well as the diminutive but well armed KF-16 Fighting Falcons. The Japanese had setup AWACs radar coverage over the entire northern Korean peninsula with their state-of-the-art E-767 Early Warning aircraft (which used the same large twin engine airliner base airplane as the KC-767s, except with a huge radar saucer on top), and these provided a comprehensive and detailed look at not only the enemy forces, but the friendlies as well.

Bushido was amazed at the size of the latter, as displayed on his radar screen.

"Look at all the friendlies!" he exclaimed, looking at the display.

"Shows what happens when terrorists get their hands on nuclear arms." Rapier pointed out.

"You mean try to. That's why we're here." Slingshot intervened.

"Amen to that, Slingshot." Torque agreed.

Two minutes later they reached the Initial Point (IP), or the start point of the actual mission. The IP for Operation Aces (as the mission was hastily named) was twenty miles off the coast of the Democratic Republic of North Korea, in line with the mouth of the Taedong River. The DPRK's ancient capital city, Pyongyang, was built on this river, and the Aces would use the mountains on either side of the wide but winding waterway to conceal themselves from radar until they were over the city and its airbase (which now housed the nuclear warheads acquired by Al-Qaida).

"Aces, go cloak and turn music on." Torque ordered, switching on his Raptor's active stealth. Slingshot and Rapier also turned their aircraft's high-power jammers on as the entire flight of four turned off their craft's exterior navigation lights. Now they were invisible not only to radar, but to the eyes as well. Torque then gave the mission-start order:

"Aces lead to flight. Execute, execute, execute."

Each airplane rolled almost upside down and dove towards the shimmering sea.

All four fighters went supersonic in the dive at the same time, a massive double boom echoing across the water. 100 miles away on the George Washington's 4.5 acre flight deck Renegade heard the sonic boom, and wondered what it was (none of that ship's fighters were airborne) as she strapped into a brand-new F/A-18E.

At one mile above the water the four fighters pulled up steeply, settling down at three stories above the water. Streaking past a small island and over a short dam Aces flight entered the mile-wide Taedong river canyon.

The fighters followed the contours of the river, swinging around a hairpin and then going single-file as the river narrowed to 2000ft, approaching the city. Rapier's Typhoon was first, and behind that came Slingshot's Tomcat, Bushido's Eagle, and finally Torque's Raptor.

After two more turns the city appeared in front of them, a few skyscrapers lit up and numerous 10 story tall buildings surrounding them much like a city a little smaller than Chicago. As the river turned right going into the city Rapier and then the rest of Team Aces pulled up rapidly to 500ft, exiting the river canyon and flying over the western part of the city. They shot over the buildings with less than 400ft of clearance, blasting past the 1000ft tall Ryugyong Hotel (by far the tallest building in North Korea).

Bushido blinked as he noticed he had to look _up_ to see the highest part of the cone-shaped building, but then focused back on his radar to look for MiGs. The target (a low warehouse-like building next to a runway on the airfield) now came into view.

Rapier was the first one to speak.

"Aces 1-3, skies are clear for the drop."

"Aces 1-4 confirms." Bushido said next.

"Aces 1-2, same here." Slingshot finished.

"Copy, tally target. Opening bay doors." Torque acknowledged.

Instead of carrying weapons on the wings the Raptor keeps them inside the trapezoidal fuselage for better aerodynamics and stealth. There are three bays, a small bay for a sidewinder on either side and a single large bay underneath for carrying six AMRAAMs. But when shutter doors opened on the main bay there were only two AMRAAMs, one on either side of the cavity- and replacing the four missiles in the center were four small bombs double-stacked four a total of eight. This was the Raptor's alternate load for Air-to-Ground (or "Air-to-Mud", as fighter pilots like to say) missions, comprising the normal two sidewinders in the side bays, a reduced number of AMRAAMs, and eight GPS-guided Small Diameter Bombs.

"Weapons release." Torque said as the bombs fell from the bay.

Due to the Raptor's active stealth the North Korean's SAM radars couldn't even see the bombs to fire on them, and even if they could the bombs were so low that by the time the missiles intercepted them they would have already hit the ground.

As the bombs fell Aces flight started to make a u-turn, and just as they were halfway through this the first bomb hit the warehouse dead-on.

The SDBs are designed to penetrate up to six feet of solid reinforced concrete, so breaking through the two-inch thick steel roof was like going through tissue paper.

The explosion was about the size of a large fighter, blasting the roof off that section of the building as the next bomb impacted. In a relentlessly efficient pattern each section of the long low building was destroyed with eight Small Diameter Bombs.

When the Aces passed back over the airfield all that was left of the building was the rough outline of its foundation, the inside torched and cratered beyond recognition.

"Aces 1-1, splash." Torque said with satisfaction.

"Good kill!" Rapier agreed as the flight returned to single file formation, headed for the river. Unusually for a ground attack mission, they went out the same way they came in, rising up to 5000ft after leaving the Taedong and then starting the trip back to Miho. But as soon as they started to turn south the George Washington's E-2 Hawkeye came over the radio.

"Aces flight, new picture. We've just received word from CIA that a small 727 airliner left the airbase you just bombed. It has the first shipment of nuclear warheads onboard, the last remnant of the material stored at the base. The plane is headed for Chinese airspace and we don't have the clearance to knock it down after it crosses the border. You're the closest flight we have up, so splash that plane before it gets to the border!"

"Copy, we'll head him off at the pass." Torque replied, now a bit tense.

"Aces, push it up and go Supersonic, we got a plane to catch." he said to his team, all of them "lighting the candle" on their afterburners.

As the four craft once again went past the speed of sound numerous MiG-29s started showing up on their radars, rising from bases near the city and coast.

"Are you seeing all those MiGs?" Rapier asked.

"Looks like trouble. Whoa…" Torque said, looking at his radar screen.

More than twenty MiG-29S Fulcrums had just lifted off from the bases near the city in less than three minutes, and they were headed for the Aces and already between them and the terrorist's Boeing 727.

"We don't even have time to deal with these blokes…" Rapier said in tense annoyance.

"Yes, it looks like the 727 we're chasing is only eight or nine minutes from the border, and now these Fulcrums can see us on IRST." Slingshot agreed.

And, all the pilots knew, it was a much easier to shoot down a Fulcrum at BVR than in a turning dogfight. And if the Aces did get into a turning fight they would have no chance at catching the 727, even at supersonic speed. Then Torque remembered the Nimitz class aircraft carrier George Washington cruising less than 100 miles away from them, and its complement of 18 Super Hornets.

"This is Aces 1-1, are there any Navy Super Hornets out there? We're about to get into a massive furball out here." he said to the airwaves. The reply came quickly.

"This is Patriot lead from the USS George Washington. I've got three Super Bugs in tow and we all got slammers hangin' from the wings. Burners are on and we'll be within AMRAAM range in 30 seconds."

What surprised Bushido was that it was a female voice, something his country's air force didn't have in fighters yet. It was actually Renegade talking, and she was eager to avenge Vapor.

"I'm _very_ glad to hear that Patriot. Let's rock n' roll." Torque responded.

The "Super Bugs" shot in from the west, pinning the Fulcrums against the coast while the Aces started gaining altitude.

Then the battle began. At a range of sixty miles the Super Bugs ripple-fired their AIM-120D AMRAAM missiles off of their wings, sending 24 "slammers" towards the fleet of MiG-29s who only just learned of the F/A-18Es presence.

As the missiles streaked in at over four times the speed of sound several Japanese and South Korean fighters also joined in fight- which was about 20 seconds away from becoming a massacre.

The Aces were about a mile above the MiGs when the Hornet's wave of missiles impacted. Many bright points of light from one direction converged on a section of sky perhaps a mile in diameter- and then several massive explosions lit up the night. Trails of flame and smoke appeared suddenly and then spiraled away, like matches being lit and blown out.

As the North Koreans were annihilated The Aces pressed the attack on the 727 as it came into range.

"Fox-3, Fox-3!" Torque exclaimed, dropping his two slammers from the main bay.

The missiles took off, but then four more aircraft appeared on radar followed by the blinding of the entire team's radars except for Torque's Raptor (whose more advanced 5th generation fighter sensors held up to the jamming).

"We've got enemy music, looks like those Flankers from earlier." Slingshot said, looking at his radar screen. The leader of the team spoke next:

"Yeah, your guy's slammers are pretty much useless in this environment. _And_ they have active stealth. This might get ugly. Aces, switch to heatseekers." Torque ordered, knowing that radar guided missiles might as well be rocks with rocket motors on them when faced with high-power jamming or active stealth.

The missiles Torque's Raptor fired, however, were being guided by the F-22's radar instead of their own, making them much more robust against jamming. But not against being intercepted.

Suddenly both missiles were swatted from the sky by R-73 missiles, and then Torque's Raptor's Missile Approach Warning System (MAWS) went off, meaning that missiles had been fired at them.

"ACES, BREAK!" he shouted as the missile exhausts came into view.

Each of the four craft was yanked into a high-performance turn in a different direction, with mixed results.

Slingshot's Tomcat would not have made it without its thrust vectoring, just barely pitching up fast enough to skim over the incoming missile.

Rapier was the first to react to Torque's order, jinking left while popping flares. He managed to evade the missile, and was the first to regain his bearings.

Torque easily evaded the missile aimed at him, the main reason being his Raptor's stealth only let the missile get the faintest inferred signature (can't hit what you can't see).

Bushido was not so lucky. He jinked right, but the missile out-turned his F-15 and struck the right engine dead center, knocking it out and throwing shrapnel into the right wing and left engine.

His airplane went into a violent right-side roll with the right wing pierced in several places by high-speed debris from the engine, which was now trailing flame, thick black smoke, and jet fuel.

"I'M HIT! I'M HIT!" he shouted, making what was obvious to his team known to everyone in the area, including Patriot flight. Renegade was the next one to speak:

"We need a SAR chopper ASAP!" she said, leading the now multinational aerial cavalry charge towards the new enemies. But because of the Su-35's active stealth the AMRAAMs on the Eagles, Hornets, and Falcons headed for the fight would be useless- forcing a massive turning dogfight.

A dogfight had already ensued between the Aces and the four "Super" Flankers.

A Flanker had targeted the rolling Bushido, and was swinging in behind to score the first ever kill on an F-15 Eagle. The enemy pilot saw the flame and trail of jet fuel and thought one 30mm cannon round should to the trick- no matter how tough the Eagle was. What he didn't see was the EF2000 coming in behind _him_ in the dive, covering Bushido.

"Shido', you've got trouble!" Rapier called, swinging into position 500ft behind the Flanker and locking him up. But the moment Rapier had a firing solution –and half a moment before he fired- the Flanker suddenly started a Cobra maneuver.

The Flanker's pilot heard the blaring "enemy lock" warning and decided to surprise his attacker.

_"NOT AGAIN YOU DON'T!"_ Rapier thought, switching on his guns. It turned out that the Flanker pilot was the one who was surprised. Rapier yanked his airbrakes and pulled up harshly, flying directly towards the now mid-Cobra Flanker. He then double tapped the fire button and pulled long on the trigger, letting loose with not only several huge 27mm cannon rounds but two AIM-9X sidewinders- which obliterated the Su-35 just before the Eurofighter passed through what was left of it (soda can size debris).

"Splash one!" Rapier exclaimed.

"Nice fireworks Rapier- but we're not done yet." Torque chided, barrel-rolling over the top of a Flanker to get behind it (the Flanker's pilot was distracted by the obliteration of his wingman).

This Flanker also tried to pull a Cobra to get the advantage, but Torque matched the move perfectly, and just before both airplanes returned to normal flight the F-22's M61 cannon blew this second Flanker-E out of the sky. Then Torque quickly switched focus.

"Bushido, you ok?" he asked the man in the stricken F-15.

Any other fighter would have been blown to bits, but after punching his last remaining engine to the max Bushido had managed to get his heavily damaged Eagle back under control. His words came in scattered pants:

"Yeah… I'm leveled out… and RTB."

"Copy. Slingshot, makes sure he gets home." Torque ordered.

"Roger that. Follow me back Shido'." Slingshot said.

"Shido" thought it was a weird time for a new nickname but figured he was lucky to be alive in the first place.

"Copy, RTB." he confirmed. The two fighters (now in formation) turned towards Japan.

Now only two Flankers remained: one trying to catch Torque, and one closing on Rapier and Bushido- unbeknownst to them. Torque had lit his afterburners to chase down the 727, and Rapier was swinging around to cover him.

But the last two Su-35s still had their active stealth, and Torque and the Flanker chasing him had already left Rapier so far behind his Sidewinders didn't have the range to catch up. But that wasn't the Aces' only problem.

The second Sukhoi was now only a few hundred feet behind Slingshot and Bushido- and they still didn't see him.

Suddenly a missile warning sounded in both airplanes as two R-73's hurtled off the Sukhoi's under wing launch rails. Immediately Slingshot glanced up and saw the missiles coming in. A quarter second later he flipped a switch and swiftly yanked the stick as far back as he could pull it. The custom Tomcat's Thrust Vectoring engine nozzles pitched up and the entire airplane seemed to snap into a backflip. Three quarters of a second later the Cat' was halfway through the flip and pointed at the incoming missiles, which the airplane automatically locked onto. The moment after the lock-on tone reached Slingshot's ears he pushed the fire button and two AIM-9X Sidewinders left the F-14E at the same time, impacting the incoming R-73s a quarter second later. Then Slingshot pushed the stick forward to slow the backflip (which also had the same air-brake effect as a Cobra maneuver) and timed it so that the attacking Su-35 was directly under the Tomcat's nose when it was pointing straight down. Slingshot pulled the trigger and both of the F-14E's M61 Gatling cannons showered the center of the Sukhoi with rounds. As the Tomcat finished its flip the solid double streams of rounds reached the cockpit, and the Flanker's canopy was visibly splashed with blood before shattering.

The wrecked Sukhoi then folded like a closing book down the centerline, exploding as the wings clapped together. What had been a state-of-the-art fighter jet

three seconds before was now less valuable than the pile of rubble at Ground Zero.

"What was that?" Bushido asked, not entirely sure of what just happened.

Slingshot pulled alongside him.

"Swatting a fly." the Israeli answered.

Meanwhile Torque was almost in Sidewinder range of the 727, which was now only two minutes from the border.

Rapier and his fast but not nearly fast enough Eurofighter had been totally left behind, leaving the American alone.

But F-22 pilots had always trained under the assumption they would be outnumbered 10 to 1 anyway, so Torque was not that worried about the single Su-35 breathing down his neck. Actually, it was pretty far from breathing down his neck: the F-22's unbelievable acceleration to twice the speed of sound ensured that even the

AL-41F equipped Su-35 had no chance of catching up.

Torque watched the radar display between his legs.

"_Ten miles- AIM-9 range."_ he thought, passing the threshold.

He locked up the 727, popping a Sidewinder out of either bay on the sides of the jet. The missiles tracked beautifully towards the defenseless airliner's engines (a hard turn would just rip the non-military airliner to pieces at this speed), but only two seconds before impact a single R-77 radar guided missile shot past Torque's Raptor at mach 4.5 and detonated just between the Sidewinders, causing both to explode just far enough away from the Boeing that the terrorist-flown airliner was unharmed.

The first thought that crossed Torque's mind after the initial surprise of the missiles interception was _"That guy behind me is a lucky moron ain't he?"_, but then he regained focus, realizing that the only valid weapon he had left was his cannon. He would need to get right behind the airliner and hit it with his M61- not the easiest proposition, but the only good one. He pulled up into a steep loop to lose the several hundred MPH of overtake speed he had on the 727, ending up right behind it when he pulled out of the loop. The aircraft were so high up now that they could see the sun peeking over the horizon, even though it hadn't rose on the ground yet.

Torque could see the outline of the 727 easily and comfortably lined up the shot.

Suddenly a warning came on saying the Raptor's heat signature had been detected. Torque craned his neck to look over his shoulder, and sure enough there was a large fighter jet hanging in the sky a few hundred feet behind him.

_"He HAD to detect me now!" _Torque thought, punching the Raptor into a loop before the Flanker could lock on. But the Su-35 managed to keep up with the much faster Raptor through the loop, and the two craft entered a weaving, diving, looping chase.

Now time was practically up, the terrorist's 727 less than 60 seconds from the border. The fighters of the South Korean Air Force, Japanese Air Self-Defense Force, and U.S. Navy were nearly within firing range of their Sidewinders, but were still too far out to knock down the airliner. Rapier had now caught up and was in AIM-9X range, but he had no AIM-9Xs left.

Torque ran through his options.

"_I'm out of missiles… I'll need to line the guy up to blast him with guns, and that's suicide because of this mean looking Flanker-E behind me… I could slip behind this Su and blow him away, but then the 727 would get away… Do I have to ram the 727?" _

Just then a stream of 30mm cannon tracers flew past his cockpit as the Raptor went through a turn, jolting Torque before giving him an idea.

"_Someone does have to ram him, but that doesn't mean that someone has to be me,"_

He thought, swinging back around towards the airliner.

The Flanker followed, the two craft catching up to and then rising above the airliner. The Flanker punched on its afterburners to keep up with the Raptor, and actually closed the distance to only 200ft. Torque turned the Raptor upside down, identified the 727's red wingtip lights, and dove downwards.

The Flanker followed closely, spewing 30mm cannon rounds at the hard-to-see F-22. Torque put the Raptor into a barrel roll, ending with the canopy facing in the direction of the airliner below them.

And now the finale of Operation Aces began.

The Raptor and Flanker headed straight down, increasing speed steadily. The terrorist's 727 was headed straight for the Chinese border –only five miles away now- at 0.8 times the speed of sound directly in the path of the two twin-engined fighters.

The fighter pilots both saw the small airliner (still twice the size of the fighters) and punched the engines, Torque trying to pass in front of it and the Flanker-E pilot trying to keep up with Torque.

The Raptor immediately left the Su-35 in its jetwash, rocketing downward.

The Sukhoi's pilot saw the Raptor accelerate ahead, and lit his afterburners to try and catch him. He saw the Raptor's advance seemingly be soaked up by the nearly 40000 pounds of thrust provided by the AL-41F. But his next sight would be his last.

He saw a white streak in his peripheral vision and looked up to see the nose of the 727 only 50ft away from his canopy.

By the next moment the 727 had done to the Flanker what an SUV would do to a parked compact car. The nose of the airliner smashed through the fighter like a 90-MPH baseball through a window, annihilating the Boeing's cockpit and instantly killing its occupants as the fractured Flanker's fuselage went up in a fireball. The only part of the house-sized Flanker that survived in pieces larger than a car door was the cockpit, and that now housed a semi-conscious pilot.

As the man ejected the practically nose-less 727 pitched up only a mile from the border, and then spiraled down. With all the Su-35's down (and with them their intense jamming) radar guided missiles could be guided again, and the multinational task force of F/A-18E Super Hornets, different types of F-15 Eagles, KF-16 Fighting Falcons, and Rapier's EF2000 used them to great effect, obliterating what was left of the 727 with more than 30 individual missiles.

Torque got over the radio.

"This is Aces lead, Grandslam, repeat Grandslam. The good guys won this one. We couldn't have done it without you Patriot, and the same to every other fighter jock out there!"

Renegade was next.

"We aim to please Aces, but you guys are the real heroes here. Great flyin' and fightin' with you. Patriot flight is RTB."

Over the next month the Aces got to have some down time in Japan while doing some testing on 5th-genaration fighters for the Japanese Self Defense Force, and returned to active duty at Tonopah after that time. Their "special" activities have been classified for the sake of National Security, and their kills attributed to freak accidents or crashes in official documents. For a true special-ops group does not pride itself on what makes the news, but what doesn't.

6


End file.
